Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Jin Zidian and others certainly didn't know that the magical arrow, which they regarded as a secret weapon, had already been discovered by the Ming Dynasty.

After Xiang Junqing came to Korea, he first took over the Korean Pacification Office and brought the rules and regulations and advanced experience of the Jinyiwei in the capital here.

The Korean Pacification Office, which had been doing nothing under the leadership of the scholar Mao Yunlong, soon exerted the power of an intelligence agency.

The Koreans had no awareness of this, and the Ming Dynasty easily discovered many of their secrets.

The identities of a few Ming officials and citizens allowed craftsmen, who were both good and low-class people, to sell their products without any burden.

The drawings of the Shenji Arrow had already been transmitted to the capital of the Ming Dynasty and were manufactured by the Equipment Institute.

Zhu Youjian was quite curious about the so-called magic arrow and ordered the Equipment Institute to take it to the inner training ground for inspection.

Looking at the divine arrow that was somewhat similar to the metal storm of later generations, Zhu Youjian nodded slightly, feeling that the Korean craftsmen were still quite creative.

He asked Bi Maokang:

"How effective is the Divine Machine Arrow? Have you tested it?"

Bi Maokang said very easily:
"It can indeed hit targets thousands of meters away, but because there are too few warheads, it can only be lethal to densely packed formations."

"Once the personnel are dispersed, its power will be reduced, far less than the arrow-type shrapnel that is being developed."

Arrow shrapnel can release hundreds to tens of thousands of steel arrows at a time, far more than the arrows fired by the divine machine arrows. It also has a longer range and the artillery can be reloaded faster.

Therefore, after the Ming Dynasty craftsmen created the Shenji Arrow, they generally looked down on this weapon and thought it would be better to continue developing arrow-shaped shrapnel shells.

In fact, many people think that ordinary shrapnel can outperform it and is much cheaper than it.

Zhu Youjian also knew that this weapon must have shortcomings, otherwise the Metal Storm of later generations would not be without equipment.

But he was still very interested in this type of firearm combination, and said to Bi Maokang and other craftsmen from the Equipment Institute:

"After the Jianlu filled up the trenches of Dalinghe Fort, they attacked the city walls."

"That was the most dangerous time for Dalinghe Fort, but fortunately it was blown over by a thrown grenade."

"But the defenders of Daling River also believe that a rapid-fire weapon is needed."

"Do you think this kind of divine arrow has that potential?"

Bi Maokang and others thought of the battle report from Dalingh River, and then they took the magic arrow seriously.

But he still felt that there was no need for equipment, and said to the emperor:

"If you just want to defend against enemies rushing under the city wall, you can use rocket vehicles, such as the swarms used by the military."

"It's too expensive to use a gun barrel to load the Shenji Arrow, and it's not convenient to load it."

Zhu Youjian shook his head when he heard this and said:
"Of course it's expensive to use a new barrel, but it's cheaper to use an old barrel like North Korea does."

"And you don't have to use arrow-shaped bullets. Lead bullets will do at close range."

"You can use a sub-gun for loading. Put the sub-gun on the clip, set the distance in advance, and load a row directly."

"This weapon can be called a volley gun, and is used as a close-range sweeping weapon."

After drawing a schematic diagram, Zhu Youjian ordered the Equipment Institute to build it for testing as a weapon to replace the rocket car.

After seeing this, Bi Maokang and others also thought that the volley gun might be useful and could replace the rocket vehicle. It could sweep the enemy when they rushed to a close range and directly knock down a large number of them.

In particular, old gun barrels can be used to make good use of waste. If the test results are good, soldiers can be equipped with them.

After proposing this weapon, Zhu Youjian thought of the rocket launcher of later generations from the name of rocket car.

That type of combined rocket launcher has become a commonly used weapon in later generations.

So he asked:
"How is the research on the rocket slide left by Zhao Shizhen going?"

"Have you developed a rocket launcher?"

Bi Maokang replied:
"We have researched and found that it can give rockets a certain direction and shooting angle."

"But the accuracy is too poor, and the shells may not explode, so they don't have much power."

This is a common problem with current shrapnel bombs. In the absence of a detonator, the wooden fuse needs to be ignited manually, and it is hard to say whether or when it will explode.

However, Zhu Youjian was inspired by the rocket car and said to them:

"If the accuracy is too low, use it to cover the attack. If the shells may not explode, fire more shells."

"Link it up and use it as a covering weapon."

I drew a sketch of a multiple rocket launcher and asked them to try to build it.

If we can produce a usable rocket launcher, it will be able to cause great damage to the enemy whether in defending a city or in a field battle.

Zhu Youjian came up with all these after seeing the magic arrow. The craftsmen in the Equipment Institute were extremely amazed at the emperor's ingenious ideas.

But they did not gain nothing. Lu Xiang said:
"Although North Korea's divine arrows are not very practical, the arrow-shaped bullets they use are quite unique."

"I think if we don't pursue accuracy blindly, we can make low-cost arrow-shaped bullets like they do."

Zhu Youjian became interested when he heard this and asked him hurriedly:

“How low can the cost be, and can it be used like ordinary lead bullets?”

Lu Xiang said affirmatively:

“It’s much cheaper than the original arrow-shaped bullets, and the price is almost the same as lead bullets.”

"Your Majesty, please look!"

Taking out an arrow-shaped bullet wrapped in oil paper, Lu Xiang said:

"This type of arrow-shaped bullet uses oil paper to wrap the gunpowder, instead of silk powder bags, which greatly reduces the cost."

"The arrow body is no longer a three-edged arrowhead, but a steel needle with a tail fin as Your Majesty originally said."

This is the conclusion reached by the Equipment Academy after careful testing.

The key to the stability of an arrow-shaped bullet lies in the tail fins, not whether it looks like an original arrowhead.

Therefore, the three-edged arrowhead originally used by Lu Xiang was abandoned and simply became the steel needle plus tail fin that the emperor mentioned.

These small arrowheads are found inside shrapnel shells and are easier to cast.

Zhu Youjian nodded slightly to show his approval, and then heard Lu Xiang say:

"The most time-consuming wooden support is no longer cut into a saddle shape, but is simply divided into two halves and then glued together."

"The wooden support was used to make the arrow-shaped bullets that the Koreans cut corners on. I was inspired by this and made this arrow-shaped bullet."

"Although this crudely made ammunition is not very accurate, it is fast enough to produce and the cost is very cheap."

"Compared to lead bullets, it just adds the cost of a wooden stock, and even casting an iron arrowhead is easier than making a lead bullet head."

This made Zhu Youjian very happy. Thinking of what Lu Xiang said about not pursuing accuracy, he asked him:
"How much does the accuracy drop, and how many meters is the effective range?"

Lu Xiang was a little surprised and said:
"Because of the low manufacturing requirements, the accuracy is very unstable, and the wooden stock may fall off prematurely or not fall off at all." "During the test, the accuracy of good ammunition is almost the same as the original arrow-shaped bullet, and the effective range can reach 300 meters."

"Bad ammunition may fly around when it's fired, and you don't know where it will go."

"But it can be launched far away like the North Koreans do, and it can still be lethal from a thousand meters away."

Zhu Youjian was somewhat speechless after hearing this, but after thinking about its cost, he nodded in agreement:
"It's better to have something than nothing!"

"You continue to improve it and strive to make it close to the original arrow-shaped bullet in terms of accuracy while maintaining the cost."

"It seems that the smoothbore gun barrel can still be used in the future!"

These words made Lu Xiang speechless, because he was the designer of the breech-loading rifled musket, and he was just one of the designers of the muzzle-loading self-flowing flintlock smoothbore musket.

So deep down, he certainly hoped that breech-loading rifled muskets could be equipped in large quantities.

However, because rifled gun barrels are difficult to manufacture, their cost is very high. Even if the high accuracy of the sniper musket is not required, Lu Xiang estimates that its cost will be around thirty taels, which is more than six times that of a muzzle-loading smoothbore musket.

Therefore, there was a lot of debate in the Equipment Academy about which of these two types of muskets to use.

The current firing rates of the two are similar, and those who support the breech-loading rifled musket are attracted by its long range and low ammunition price. Even if the price of the musket is very expensive, the subsequent use is very cheap.

The reason for supporting the muzzle-loading smoothbore musket is that it is cheap to produce. It only costs four or five taels of silver to build one, and it can easily equip hundreds of thousands of people.

Even if arrow-shaped bullets are expensive, don't we still have cone-shaped bullets and scatter bullets? The effective range of cone-shaped bullets is 200 meters, which is longer than that of bows and arrows.

However, there seems to be no need to discuss this issue now, because the cost of arrow-shaped bullets has also dropped. Although the accuracy is a bit poor, it solves the problem of whether or not to have them.

Arrow-shaped bullets can be used for long-range shooting. When the accuracy is good, the effective range can be close to that of a rifled musket.

So after Lu Xiang created the arrow-shaped bullet that reduced costs, he was speechless.

Because of his improvement, the musket he designed temporarily lost the opportunity to be equipped on a large scale.

Holding the breech-loading rifled musket he designed, Zhu Youjian said:
"The breech-loading rifle is the future, and we need to continue to improve it."

"I intend to offer a reward to the world to find better quality steel for gun barrels and methods for drawing rifling to reduce production costs."

"Also, we should continue to increase the reward for fulminate of mercury within the Equipment Academy, and strive to produce it as soon as possible."

This is a point that makes Zhu Youjian very helpless. The Equipment Institute has not yet produced fulminate of mercury.

Even guncotton was not successful, only collodion was produced.

What use could collodion have? Zhu Youjian thought of ping-pong balls and film, and gave them a hint to continue their research.

Zhu Youjian has planned to bring in more people from outside to participate in the development of nitrates.

After Bi Maokang and others took note, Zhu Youjian pointed to the barrel of the rifled musket:

"We must continue to manufacture rifled muskets. The imperial camp and the sniper team must be equipped with this weapon."

"Its caliber and ammunition diameter is 12 mm. If the rifling fails, the rifling can be smoothed and used as the barrel of a light smoothbore musket."

"Or we can cut out the part that has been successfully rifled and use it on hand guns or short guns."

"For this type of musket, it is allowed to be sold like swords and other weapons."

This was a cost-cutting strategy he came up with, allowing hand cannons and short cannons to be sold to the public. Even if the price was a little higher, the rich in the Ming Dynasty could still afford it.

There are always people who like weapons and will spend a lot of money to buy them.

Bi Maokang's face changed when he heard this, and he advised:
"Your Majesty, Hauge and Yangguli were sniped and killed one after another. The Ming Dynasty should take this as a warning."

"If firearms become widespread, it may be detrimental to military commanders."

Zhu Youjian took a look at what he said and felt that what he said was unfavorable to military generals might be unfavorable to officials.

But considering that many people probably can't afford such an expensive musket, he limited himself:

"Only those with the status of a knight or above and the right to bear arms can possess a firearm."

"Also, the barrel of the gun cannot exceed one foot, and the overall length of the musket cannot be less than one foot."

"This type of musket has a limited range and is not easy to conceal. It can only be used for self-defense."

He brought up two one-foot restrictions regarding muskets.

All firearms sold openly within the Ming Dynasty must comply with this regulation in the future.

Only outside the borders and beyond the Great Wall will the policy be more relaxed.

The effective range of a musket with a one-foot barrel will basically not exceed fifty meters at this time. It will not pose a great threat at long distances and can only be used as a self-defense weapon.

The overall length is more than one foot in order to prevent someone from making the musket too small and suddenly taking it out as a close-range assassination weapon.

Zhu Youjian wanted to use a partially open form to promote the development of hand guns and short guns, and then transplant their technology to long guns to enhance the power of Ming firearms.

For example, the problem of the success rate of ignition of the flintlock musket, which has always troubled him, may be solved after the musket is released. Those who are interested in studying it will come up with more solutions.

As a civil servant, Bi Maokang instinctively did not want civilian weapons to proliferate. When he was about to object, Zhu Youjian suddenly asked him:
"With the mobilization of troops in Northern Zhili this time, many people are trying to find ways to buy firearms, right?"

"Have the weapons produced by the Equipment Institute been lost? Have the weapons stored by the Logistics Department been sold?"

This left him speechless for a moment, because he couldn't guarantee that no firearm would leak out.

The imperial court mobilized a large number of troops to guard against the invasion of the Jianlu in northern Zhili. The gentry in northern Zhili naturally tried to gain advantages and buy some weapons for self-defense.

After the soldiers from Korea and Dalinghhe Fort continued to shoot and kill the Jianlu with firearms, he, as the Minister of Equipment, was questioned many times.

There were many families among them with whom he had friendly relations, so it was not easy for him to refuse.

Moreover, he was sure that not everyone would be so cruel as to refuse, and some firearms must have been leaked in private.

Even some greedy officials may sell their stockpiled weapons.

This left him silent and he did not respond to the emperor's words.

Zhu Youjian did not investigate this for the time being, and said to Bi Maokang and others lightly:
"It is understandable that you want a weapon to defend yourself. Everyone has the right to defend themselves."

"But there should be regulations on what weapons should be owned, and things like sniper rifles should not be allowed to be leaked out."

"Handguns and short guns are good. The Equipment Institute should study it and list the weapons and quantities that civilians are allowed to possess."

"For those who do not meet this standard, let them hand it in within a time limit."

“Those who do not have the right to bear arms are not allowed to privately possess weapons.”

Then he said to Zheng Shiyi, the commander of the Jinyiwei who had made great contributions in spying on North Korea and was accompanying him:
"The Royal Guards must also follow this standard and add shooting competitions to their martial arts competitions."

"Anyone who can legally possess a musket is eligible to participate."

"Those that cannot be privately possessed can also be trained at the shooting range."

Encourage civilians to practice using muskets so that more people can become reserve soldiers.

After the others left, Zheng Shiyi was given the task of collecting illegal weapons from the public. He planned to follow the serial numbers on the firearms to find out how they were leaked. (End of this chapter)